Sir Sadiq Khan has been blasted as a “damn disgrace” in a blistering attack led by the leader of the City Hall Conservatives Susan Hall.
Speaking with GB News’ Matt Goodwin, Ms Hall directed her fury at the Labour mayor over his treatment of the grooming gangs scandal.
The Tory, who has consistently brought up the issue in the Capital’s debating chamber, accused Sir Sadiq of ignoring the plight of young girls and boys.
When asked why she believes he is doing so, she simply answered: “Nobody knows.
“I cannot understand when I first asked him in January, do we have rape gangs in London? And of course, I assume the answer was yes.
“You can’t have nine million people in the city and not have the same as going on the rest of the country.”
Last month, the Metropolitan Police announced they would re-investigate 9,000 child sex abuse cases, informing the mayor alleged grooming gang and child exploitation cases from the past 15 years will make up the probe.
The review partly makes up Operation Beaconport, which is a national project to shed light on previous failures to combat group-based child sexual exploitation.
Ms Hall took aim at the London mayor in GB News
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On Thursday, police chief commissioner Sir Mark Rowley informed the London Assembly that his force had reviewed 2,200 of the 9,000 cases and had revealed approximately 1,200 remained in scope.
He forecast that the number would fall further as the investigation progresses, leaving “maybe 2,000 or 3,000 cases” to be re-assessed.
“Regardless of ethnicity or anything else, the fact that young girls and sometimes young boys are being abused in such a horrific way, it needs to be investigated,” Ms Hall insisted.
“And as mayor of our city, he’s an absolute damn disgrace.
LATEST FROM SIR SADIQ KHAN’S LONDON:
Mr Farage spoke alongside grooming gangs survivor Ellie Reynolds
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“I asked him on Thursday in the meeting if he would apologise to these girls who saw you pretend you didn’t even know what these gangs were.
“Of course, he wouldn’t answer, wouldn’t do anything, just talked about people up north and he felt sorry for them.
“He wouldn’t answer. He wouldn’t say that he was sorry.”
Back in January, the Tory leader asked Sir Sadiq nine times if there were rape gangs operating, either presently or historically, in London.
But he simply insisted that he was “not clear what she means” and, following clarification on the question by Ms Hall with specific reference to the rape gangs in Rotherham and Bradford, the Labour mayor claimed he was “none the wiser”.
Ms Hall’s demands have chimed with those of Reform chief Nigel Farage, who called for a parliament-led committee to investigate the true extent of the scandal in the city.
Addressing a jam-packed press conference in Westminster in October, Mr Farage declared that Sir Sadiq had “failed grooming gang victims”.
He said: “He has been denying that there’s grooming going on in London. The Met have been denying that grooming is going on in London.
“He said identifying such groups in the capital was more complex than in smaller towns and cities.
“Maybe London is the last great grooming scandal to be uncovered, and it looks like we’re very close to that.”
